Unlock the potential of vaccines in food-producing animals Broader coverage can have economic, climate-related, animal welfare, and human health benefits

Animal vaccines help maintain healthy livestock and poultry populations, improve food safety, and reduce the transmission of zoonotic disease to humans (1). Such vaccines can reduce the clinical impact of pathogens on an individual animal, an important ethical consideration for improving animal welfare. However, the extent of routine vaccination among food-producing animals in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) is low and considerably lags vaccination rates in high-income countries (HICs) (see fig. S1). Many of the existing gaps in the area of vaccine development and deployment for terrestrial food-producing animals could be hugely aided by changes in policy and increases in funding. But this is also a scientific problem of fundamental importance and applied relevance. Improvement could simultaneously help mitigate climate change and pandemic risk, tackle antimicrobial resistance, and fight poverty. Few global investments could claim to have similarly broad benefits at so modest a cost. The global livestock and poultry sector plays a critical role in global food production and security and economic well-being, especially among marginalized populations. Furthermore, animal protein is an important source of nutrition for a substantial proportion of the world’s human population, and consumption is increasing rapidly. Yet vaccines remain considerably underused in animal health, despite playing a tremendous role in human health. However, although they are currently underused, the deployment of certain vaccines has had a transformative impact on animals. Perhaps the most powerful instance of this is the rinderpest vaccine, which resulted in the eradication of this cattle disease (2). Another example is how rapidly the equine West Nile virus (WNV) vaccine was developed after the first identification of WNV in the United States. Although we focus on terrestrial food-producing animals, we recognize the need for developments on vaccines for aquatic animals as well.